They Are Among Us
by Loli Yoshino
Summary: Luna Thates is the daughter of a God created off of American Values. She and her Best Friend Julia must go take on one of the major things that are starting to restrict The Freedom of Americans. [Everything is Original, with Plot Points based off of Percy Jackson]


7

Chapter 1

_The head of my Orphanage is a Goddess?_

My memories of my mom are limited, but they have lasted for the past few years. When I was 6 years old, my mom left for a vacation in New York and never came back. I have also never met my father. I was placed in an Orphanage at the age of 7, and have lived there ever since.

Normally kids my age would be playing on their Xboxones or solving complicated math problems, but my entire being is commonly seen as heroic. I mean, the last time I actually got into a fight was over some kid stealing my friend's lunch money. That kid left the orphanage and put into foster care. We never heard from him again. But, we didn't really want to hear from him anyway.

Oh, I almost forgot, my name is Luna Thates and this is my story. I have brown hair, I know for some reason that's important. Not only am I an outcast in my orphanage, I'm the only person who actually likes Mother Patricia. Everyone else sees her as an evil witch, and they say she even acts like an evil witch. This is redundant. There might be something wrong with me, but I see Mother Patricia as a nice and caring lady who really loves the children she houses. Everyone just has a really bad perspective of her.

Okay, back to me, I was actually on my way to a store when a pain signal went off in my head. You know how normal people get headaches? Well, I've confirmed with myself I am not a normal person and this was not a normal headache. I decided that it was Urgent, and ran out of the Orphanage in only my pajamas. When the front desk lady asked where I was going, I just told her I was going to the store. Except, I wasn't actually going to the store.

You see, every time I get a headache like this, it's usually when citizens are being attacked wrongly. I am a very strong pursuer of the law, ever since I was a child. When I was 8, I always picked up a copy of the Orphanage rulebook. Basically, that's just because the law is placed for a purpose, and those who break the law are incredibly stupid. To protect citizens from extremely stupid people, I decided to go help them.

Before I go into what happened during this miraculous, life-changing fight, I want to point out that there are god's among us. As a kid I was told of the stories and myths of these said "Gods", but never actually took them seriously until now. I loved the myths and stories, but they seemed too good to be true. I mean, a God who can only speak with Instruments? A shapeshifter who transforms into what people want to see in her? That doesn't sound clever enough to be true. The tales of the gods, as of right now, are to me nothing more than a bedtime story.

Moving on, I ran down the long alleyway before making my way to the back entrance of the bank. I noticed the thieves and robbers coming out of the money storage, and hid behind a dumpster.

"We sure hit the jackpot this time, Steve." One of the thieves said, counting the money they just took.

"I'm pretty positive now is not the time to be counting money, Bill. We need to make out hasty escape." Steve replied nervously.

"But Steve, We count our dollars on the train to the party, can't you at least have a little fun?"

"Bill, you need to stop listening to pop music and memes for inspiration. We've got to get out of here before someone comes and calls the police!"

"But 5 people already called the police…"

"Seriously? Are you even trying anymore, Bill? Come on, let's just make our way out of here."

As soon as they tried to leave, I jumped out from behind the dumpster and proclaimed my own heroic yell.

"Law Breakers of Miami, I decree you to be under the determined efforts of Luna Thates, and that I command you to stand down!" I yelled, pridefully.

"This is a feisty one, Steve." Bill said excitedly.

"We're already in trouble with the law, might as well have a little fun with it…" Steve agreed.

Without a moments noticed, each of the thieves bent down and grabbed two different inappropriate areas of my body. I immediately reacted by kicking both of the thieves in the balls, punched them in the face, and slammed their heads into one another. I dusted off my hands, pulled out a cell phone, and called the police. I waited for about 5 minutes before the police arrived, and took them away.

I walked back down the long alleyway, thinking about what just happened to myself. I formally decided that I would do this and help all the citizens of Miami. I was only 10 at the time, but I never thought I would go through with it. For 6 more years I took all of the same risk, and cleaned Miami of a lot of trouble. I was known as a hero. But not just any normal hero, I was known as the All-American Heroine. I fought for what I thought was right, and managed to overcome every challenge that was presented to me. The only time I didn't know what was going on, hilariously, happened when I was asleep.

I was 16. Well, I am 16, but that doesn't matter. I noticed a large glowing figure crashing through my bedroom window, which wasn't okay in the least, and sit down beside me, revealing the shape of a guy who must've worked out at the gym a lot, but also had a face that looked… like an eagle. Well, it was an eagle. His face was an eagle. His entire head was that of an eagle.

"Luna…" The eagle began to say.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?" I screamed, falling out of my bed and hitting the floor.

"I am dad. Oh, wait, I mean… I am Muricus, God of Freedom and Righteousness, but I'm also your dad. Happy birthday!" the figure replied.

I looked at my calendar. August 18th. My birthday. I was officially 16.

"With this new age, you can do so much more now! Like drive. Actually that's it, but you can drive! That's a given! You just need to take a course, a test, some driving lessons…" Muricus listed, off-topic.

"Okay, so that doesn't explain why you left mom." I interrupted.

"That? I think that was because of the chemical weapons deal 8 years ago. 2013, was it? I don't remember. All I know is that it was 9 years ago and I left for some important deal."

"It's 2013 now. The Chemical Weapons argument was literally 3 months ago."

"Was it, now? Interesting. Well, whatever the case, the Gods need your help. Obesius is..."

Before Muricus could finish his sentence, I broke down laughing. The name 'Obesius' sounded like a far stretch to actually be true.

"Are you okay, there?" Muricus asked.

I wiped a tear from my eye.

"Yeah, sorry, that was too good." I replied, still laughing a bit.

"I'm not joking. Obesius is taking America for Granted. The amount of Fast Food Restaurants is growing dramatically. From New York City to Los Angeles, more and more people are succumbing to Fast Food. Companies are losing power. Everyone on Mount Murc is losing energy and will, and it's all Obesius's fault."

"Well, that do you want me to do about it?"

"You need to go to a special camp for people like yourself in Seattle. I think it's called camp Monosoul. Or Duosoul. It may be Duosoul, Meaning two souls. One of the human and one of the Gods. Or something. It's based in Seattle."

"This seems oddly familiar, like what they used in the _Percy Jackson _book series I read about a year ago."

"Monopolis got the idea from that series. I told him it would be copyright infringement, but he's incredibly cocky, so he did it anyway."

"Does this mean I'll meet a satyr, and a son of whatever god or goddess and go on an adventure with them to take care of this tyrant bent on taking over the world?"

"Not a satyr, those don't actually exist. I don't know what will lie ahead of you, but what I do know is that you need to go talk to Mirage."

"Mirage?"

"The head of your Orphanage."

"You mean Mother Patricia?"

"Is that what you call her? I mean, it's cool and all, but seriously, that's a terrible name. Just call her Mirage. She may never look like anything, but she's got a heart of gold."

"Well, okay, I'll go talk to her, but I don't know why she'd…"

Before I could say anything back, Muricus vanished from sight. All he left in his spot was an American Flag and an Apple flag. I climbed back into bed and went back to sleep.

That night, I had a weird dream. I was being chased by a boy with the legs of a cheetah and a girl with bleach blonde hair and purple eyes.

"Luna Thates!" both of them yelled at me, but I kept on running.

They called my name every few minutes. I couldn't help myself. I kept running. I never once looked back. I couldn't see anything ahead of me except for white, lots and lots of white. I didn't know where I was going, or where I was in the first place. I stopped and took a breath, but the two just kept gaining on me. I soon tripped over something as both of the people caught up to me, flipped me over, and shaking me. For 5 more seconds, they screamed my first name. I woke up hearing Mother Patricia say my name aloud.

"Luna! Luna, wake up!" Patricia yelled.

I stammered awake, rubbing my eyes and lifting my head out of my bed. Everyone was staring at me through my doorway, as if I was yelling really loudly in my sleep.

"It's happening…" Mother Patricia said quietly.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"We need to get you to camp duoblood now. No time to waste. Come to my office. I'll tell you what's going on." Mother Patricia said.

I watched her as she walked out of my room and stood behind the door.

"Pack as much as you can into that backpack I gave you for Christmas last year. It'll help." Mother Patricia noted, then walked back down the hall.

I ran down to see where she was going, but she had disappeared without a trace. I sat down, alone, and thought to myself.

_Backpack? What do I even bring? I don't know where I'm going! _

I decided to jump out of bed, take off my pajamas and put on a red t-shirt and some navy blue jeans, then started packing. I put in a ton of clothes, all which seemed to fit, 3 toothbrushes, a can of silly string, the American flag my dad left me that night, and my Christmas gift from my close friend Julia, a necklace covered with music notes.

"Are you okay, Luna?" a voice called.

The tone of the voice was really soft, but perfectly sweet.

"Julia, I may have to go soon." I replied to her, as she walked in through the door.

"I may be going with you. Mother Patricia says you may need some company. We live in Miami, so Seattle is a long way from here. You wouldn't want to die out there, would you?"

We both laughed, then things got serious.

"I found out who my father was." I told her, stuffing a mythology book into my backpack.

"I heard. I live right next door to you. Your dad is the God of Righteousness and Freedom. Muricus." Julia replied, while jumping up on my bed.

"Huh? People could hear that?" I asked.

"Well, Normal people could only hear yourself. I didn't tell you I was a Duosoul kid too."

"That's what were called? That doesn't even have a nice ring to it."

"Well, my father died in the Iraq war. I never met my mother, but I had a musical note above my head one day, I guess that was my mother claiming me."

"Honestly? Why does all of this sound like it's coming out of _Percy Jackson_?"

I stood up and walked over to sit where Julia was.

"Well, as far as I know, the camp was started in 2007. That pretty much meant that the Gods could've gotten all these ideas from those books. I guess Gods don't have to worry about copyright infringement."

We both laughed again, although I stopped a bit earlier than Julia did.

"Something up?" Julia asked, curiously.

"Yeah. I need to go talk to our mother." I replied, sighing.

"I can help you with that. I already know that Mother Patricia is someone who we can go to for any help desired."

"Thanks for that, Julia, but I need to do this myself.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

I gave Julia a hug and then walked straight down to Mother Patricia's office. I waited outside the door until Mother Patricia came out and greeted me. She motioned me to follow her, so I walked into the office. She sat in her chair behind the desk, then motioned me to sit down. I turned around to see a chair, and sat right in front of her.

"First things first, I am Mirage, Goddess of Outer Image and Beauty." She said.

"That takes care of awkward introductions." I replied sarcastically.

"I assume you know why you're here?"

"I'm guessing it's because my Dad wants me to go ahead and defeat another God? Minus the fact that all I can do is beat up criminals…"

"Luna, have you ever heard of the tale of Musnick?"

"Musnick? Uhm, is that the guy who defeated the Chamunneon on his first try?"

"No, darling, Musnick was the one man who thought he could sing better than any of the mortals or Gods. One day, the Goddess Lyrica noticed what he was trying to do and challenged him to a lyrical battle. He agreed."

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised that he did. Someone that cocky would agree to anything."

"Anyway, Musnick stood up and sang in front of a whole audience, and nearly the entire audience threw rotten fruit and tomatoes at him. Lyrica did her part in it after he was booed off the stage, and Lyrica was praised almost immediately."

"So, what does this have to do with me?"

"Even if the odds seem to be against you, taking chances will always have a 50-50 outcome. Also, nothing against you, but sometimes being prideful can help you develop as a human."

"To me all I heard was Tomatoes will be thrown if you're too cocky."

"Well, that's another part of it, but you still have to try. Maybe one day you'll meet Lyrica. Her daughter will be accompanying you. I have already told Julia to help you out."

"Mother…"

"No, call me Mirage. Please."

"Sorry, Mirage, but why must it be me?"

Mirage turned around in her chair, staring outside the window.

"Do you know the overarching prophecy?"

"Prophecy? Is that a future thing that is supposed to come true?"

"Yeah, that. I'm guessing you haven't. The Prophecy foretells of a daughter of freedom and her best friend, who stops evil corporations from taking over."

"Right, Obesius and his Fast Food."

"Well, Yes and No."

"Yes and No?"

"You do know there are higher beings than Gods, right?"

"Please don't say Titans."

"I wasn't going to tell you, I was just asking if you knew there were."

"Then yes. Yes I know there are higher beings than Gods."

"Good. I have nothing more to tell you. The rest would spoil it, and make you not want to go."

"I don't really want you to go anyway."

"Well, I have to go to Seattle anyway, so you can't stay here. There will be no one left. Something is going to happen to this orphanage, so you need to leave, now."

"WHAT? What's going to happen to my home?"

"Obesius is going to happen, that's what."

I walked out of the office only to be met with Julia.

"She told you we need to leave now, right?" Julia said sternly.

"Yeah, she did." I replied.

"Well then, we have absolutely no time to waste. Grab your backpack, and let's get the heck out of here."


End file.
